Hinduism as a religion does not sanction violence. This form of competitive labelling of terror on the basis of religion is a very dangerous slope. Haasan should have avoided stepping onto it.

Kamal Haasan on Nathuram Godse&nbsp | &nbspPhoto Credit:&nbspPTI

Kamal Haasan’s statement linking terrorism to Hinduism is not only deeply unfortunate but unacceptable as well. Terrorism is terrorism. It has no religion, creed, caste, colour or region, and must be implacably repulsed in whatever form it manifests itself.

If so, why did Kamal Haasan make this egregious statement? What was his intent? Was he trying to prove that terrorism is perpetuated not by fanatical Muslims alone? If so, he fell into his own trap, because he linked it to Hindu terror, as though a terrorist is defined only by the religion he belongs to. In fact, a terrorist has no religion. He/she is an indoctrinated bigot who resorts to mindless violence driven out of hatred and fanaticism and is a disgrace to the religion to which he claims to belong.

Obviously, there is no question of defending Nathuram Godse, not even remotely. Simply put, he was a heinous terrorist. It is a shame for all Hindus that he committed his unpardonable crime in the distorted belief that he was acting to protect Hinduism. To kill the greatest messiah of peace and non-violence — Mahatma Gandhi — was an act of terror, and it is of no consequence whether Godse was a Hindu or not. To highlight his religion is to give respectability to terrorism, as though a Hindu terrorist is better or worse than a Muslim or a Sikh terrorist. This form of competitive labelling of terror on the basis of religion is a very dangerous slope. Haasan should have avoided stepping onto it.

Equally, in condemning Hasan for his remark, one should not draw the conclusion that there are no illiterate bigots within Hinduism. I am a proud Hindu. My latest book on Adi Shankaracharya is a tribute to one of the greatest minds not only in Hinduism but in any religion of the world. I am aware that it is our sages who had articulated, thousands of years ago, the seminal saying: Ekam satya bipraha bahudha vadanthi: that truth is one but wise people call it by different names. It is the seers of ancient India who had said: Anno bhadraha kritvo yantu vishvataha: Let good thoughts flow to us from all directions. It was our thinkers who had emphasised: Udar charitanam, vasudhaiva kutumbukam: for the big-hearted, the entire world is our family.

Notwithstanding the profundity of this eclectic and inclusive legacy, there are today people who, in the name of protecting Hindus and Hinduism, are devaluing my very religion. In their ignorance and unjustified zeal, they decry other religions — a sentiment that is anathema to Hinduism. They sow divisiveness by making communal statements meant to incite hatred and violence. They justify lynchings of innocent people in the name of religion. They sanction moral brigades who go about harassing young couples in what they assume is their cause: to preserve Hinduism. They are intolerant, fanatical and bigoted, all of which are the very antithesis of what a Hindu should be.

It is important to oppose this form of distorted Hinduism. However, it is quite another thing to derive from this the inference that Hindus are terrorists. Just as all Muslims are not terrorists, in spite of ISIS and al Qaeda, and the dozens of other terrorist organisations that claim to be defending Islam, a couple of bigoted Hindus do not make all Hindus terrorists.

Nathuram Godse was a terrorist, period. There was no need for Kamal Haasan to lose the plot by adding the label ‘Hindu’ terrorist to his name. In fact, Hinduism as a religion does not sanction violence. It is inclusive by its very nature, assimilative, eclectic and consensual. Godse may have been a Hindu, but Kamal Haasan should have known better than to infer that just because of that Hindus are ‘bigger’ or ‘lesser’ terrorists compared to those who profess other religions. Terrorism is terrorism, irrespective of the religion of the perpetrator.

Linking terror to religion: Kamal Haasan stepped onto a slippery slope with his comments on Nathuram GodseDescription:Hinduism as a religion does not sanction violence. This form of competitive labelling of terror on the basis of religion is a very dangerous slope. Haasan should have avoided stepping onto it.Pavan K Varma